The Initiation Of A Woman Warrior

Jamaica Kincaid, an Antiguan-born American novelist, is known for her autobiographical novels. Most of her works are characterized by an exploration of mother-daughter relationships. The Autobiography of My Mother evolves out of Kincaid's troubled relationship with her mother. It receives wide recognition and shoots to the bestseller lists across the country.Based on the fundamental theories of feminism that advocated by de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf as well as some theories that is elaborated by Said in his Orientalism, this dissertation is set to have a thorough analysis of the protagonist—Xuela from the theoretical perspective of feminist criticism, aiming to reveal the black women's plights in the face of the double oppressions from black community and the white society. The dissertation exposes the damaging effects of patriarchy on women's body and soul, and it illustrates the initiation of a woman warrior—Xuela who rebels against social norms, and assumes control of her life by shaping her own identity. With her awakening of female consciousness, Xuela violates the patriarchal authorities of her father as well as that of her lovers, and she carries out attack against the repression of female sexuality in a male-dominated society. Realising economic underpinnings of female subordination, Xuela explores ways of self-relying by living on her own toil.A study into My Mother from the angle of feminism may set a historical background and thus make readers understand better about the significance of the awakening of female consciousness and their ensuing strugglings against their fixed roles as Others. Considering the perspective of the study into the work, textual analysis is employed. This dissertation is to set the stories into a historical environment and use feminism to analyze the protagonist in My Mother. By doing so, it is expected that readers can probe into the cause of identity crisis of black women in the novel and Kincaid's implied wish of encouraging women to reclaim their identity and self-worth. Moreover, Kincaid points out the necessary way black women must undergo in search of self-identity from unconsciousness of self to attainment of cultural identity, from awakening to revolting, from independence to full bloom in entire self.